Kalamazoo County Might Join Lawsuit Against Opioid Producers

It looks like Kalamazoo County might be the next to join a lawsuit against the manufacturers of opioid drugs.

MLive reports that the County Commission met Tuesday night to discuss the possibility of joining the class action, which sees cities like Lansing and Detroit along with other Michigan municipalities suing drug makers and pharmacies. Some of the defendants include Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, and Walgreens and CVS Pharmacies.

The lawsuit claims the drug companies and pharmacies are profiting off of the opioid crisis, and says they looked the other way as their customers became addicted and died. In Kalamazoo County, 59 people suffered opioid related deaths in 2016; that's more than double from the year before.